🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

This foundational study built a continental-scale model of jaguar habitat and connectivity from northern Mexico to Argentina, identifying core populations and the corridors linking them. Using expert…

Rabinowitz, A., Zeller, K.A. · Biological Conservation · 2010

This high-profile study coupled climate, prey, and disease dynamics with metapopulation modeling to project the fate of the critically endangered Iberian lynx. It found that standard reintroduction pl…

Fordham, D.A., Akcakaya, H.R., Araujo, M.B., Keith, D.A., Brook, B.W. · Nature Climate Change · 2013

This range-wide assessment re-evaluated the jaguar's conservation status by compiling occurrence and threat data across the Americas, concluding that the species has lost a substantial share of its hi…

de la Torre, J.A., Gonzalez-Maya, J.F., Zarza, H., Ceballos, G., Medellin, R.A. · Oryx · 2017

This study linked landscape genetics to climate projections for Canada lynx, asking how warming-driven habitat contraction would affect genetic diversity along the species' southern, trailing range ed…

Koen, E.L., Bowman, J., Murray, D.L., Wilson, P.J. · Ecography · 2014

This study combined species distribution modeling with projected climate change to locate the parts of High Asia most likely to remain suitable for snow leopards as temperatures rise. By overlaying cu…

Li, J., McCarthy, T.M., Wang, H., Weckworth, B.V., Schaller, G.B., Mishra, C., Lu, Z., Beissinger, S.R. · Biological Conservation · 2016

This study advanced earlier sea-level work by combining climate-change projections with sea-level rise to model future Bengal tiger habitat in the Bangladesh Sundarbans. Using species distribution mod…

Mukul, S.A., Alamgir, M., Sohel, M.S.I., Pert, P.L., Herbohn, J., Turton, S.M., Khan, M.S.I., Munim, S.A., Reza, A.H.M.A., Laurance, W.F. · Science of the Total Environment · 2019

This study modeled a small puma population in the Santa Monica Mountains near Los Angeles, integrating demography, genetics, and landscape connectivity to estimate extinction risk for cats hemmed in b…

Benson, J.F., Mahoney, P.J., Sikich, J.A., Serieys, L.E.K., Pollinger, J.P., Ernest, H.B., Riley, S.P.D. · Proceedings of the Royal Society B · 2016

This paper argued that projections of species distributions under climate change carry large uncertainty arising from the choice of model, climate scenario, and other factors, and that ensemble foreca…

Araujo, M.B., New, M. · Trends in Ecology & Evolution · 2007

This study tested whether competition between Canada lynx and bobcat structures their distributions at a continental scale, with implications for how warming snowpack reshuffles the two species. Lynx…

Peers, M.J.L., Thornton, D.H., Murray, D.L. · Proceedings of the Royal Society B · 2013

Building on earlier work, this study examined how urbanization-driven isolation can drive small puma populations in the Santa Monica and Santa Ana Mountains into an extinction vortex, where inbreeding…

Benson, J.F., Mahoney, P.J., Vickers, T.W., Sikich, J.A., Beier, P., Riley, S.P.D., Ernest, H.B., Boyce, W.M. · Ecological Applications · 2019

Working at the southern edge of the Canada lynx range, this study disentangled whether the amount of suitable habitat or its spatial fragmentation better explains where lynx persist. Using occurrence…

Hornseth, M.L., Walpole, A.A., Walton, L.R., Bowman, J., Ray, J.C., Fortin, M.-J., Murray, D.L. · PLoS ONE · 2014

This landmark study produced the first globally consistent, high-resolution maps of forest loss and gain in the 21st century using satellite imagery, quantifying deforestation at fine scale across the…

Hansen, M.C., Potapov, P.V., Moore, R., Hancher, M., Turubanova, S.A., Tyukavina, A., et al. · Science · 2013

This study combined GPS tracking and genetics to show how major roads isolate a mountain lion population in the Santa Monica Mountains, with freeways acting as near-total barriers to movement. The aut…

Riley, S.P.D., Serieys, L.E.K., Pollinger, J.P., Sikich, J.A., Dalbeck, L., Wayne, R.K., Ernest, H.B. · Current Biology · 2014

This influential modeling study examined Canada lynx and American marten at the southern edge of their range in the northern Appalachians, asking how climate warming, forest conversion, and trapping p…

Carroll, C. · Conservation Biology · 2007

This large-scale study assessed Sumatran tiger occupancy across the island, linking tiger presence to forest cover, elevation, and protection status. By compiling extensive survey data, the authors ma…

Wibisono, H.T., Linkie, M., Guillera-Arroita, G., Smith, J.A., Sunarto, S., Pusparini, W., et al. · PLoS ONE · 2011

This paper introduced the MaxEnt method, a maximum-entropy approach for modeling species distributions from presence-only data, which became one of the most widely used tools in the field. Because muc…

Phillips, S.J., Anderson, R.P., Schapire, R.E. · Ecological Modelling · 2006

This influential review examined the rapidly growing field of species distribution modeling, comparing statistical methods, discussing the ecological theory connecting environment to occurrence, and o…

Guisan, A., Thuiller, W. · Ecology Letters · 2005

This study examined how a guild of mammalian carnivores responds to habitat fragmentation in southern California, finding that species differ markedly in their sensitivity to isolation and patch size,…

Crooks, K.R. · Conservation Biology · 2002

The Amazon holds the largest contiguous jaguar population, making its deforestation the single biggest habitat threat to the species. This overview surveys how forest clearing for cattle ranching, soy…

Climate models and ecological research raise concern that combined deforestation and warming could push parts of the Amazon past a tipping point toward drier, savanna-like vegetation, with profound im…

The Amur tiger inhabits the temperate and boreal forests of the Russian Far East and northeast China, a very different climate context from tropical tiger populations. This overview surveys how climat…

The Andean cat is a rare, specialized felid of the high Andes and Patagonian steppe, dependent on rocky terrain and prey such as mountain vizcachas. This overview surveys what is known about its restr…

The catastrophic Australian bushfires generated intensive research on wildlife impacts and recovery, advancing methods later applied elsewhere, and they highlighted the role of feral cats as a post-fi…

The Eurasian lynx, a larger relative of the Canada lynx, occupies forests across Europe and Asia where its future is shaped by both climate and intensive land use. This overview surveys how habitat-su…

The Iberian lynx inhabits Mediterranean scrub and dehesa woodland in a region projected to become hotter and drier. This overview surveys how aridification, increased fire frequency, and shifting vege…

Tiger range across Southeast Asia has collapsed dramatically, with several countries losing breeding populations to deforestation, infrastructure, and hunting. This overview surveys the regional patte…

Expanding agricultural frontiers, soy and cattle in South America, oil palm in Southeast Asia, smallholder farming in Africa and Asia, are among the largest drivers of habitat loss for wild cats. This…

The high plateaus and meadows that underpin snow leopard prey systems are sensitive to warming, permafrost thaw, and altered precipitation. This overview surveys how degradation of alpine grassland on…

Because climate is shifting where suitable Iberian lynx habitat will lie, conservationists have debated assisted colonization, deliberately establishing populations in areas projected to become suitab…

When species cannot track shifting climate fast enough, assisted migration, deliberately moving them to newly suitable areas, is debated as a last resort. This overview surveys the arguments for and a…